According to Bloomberg News and the Houston Chronicle, a jury in New York yesterday awarded Cornell University $184 million or 1% of the $23 billion dollars in sales of Hewlett-Packard processors.
Cornell University had claimed that one of its researchers, “in the 1980s, developed a way to speed up computer processors by having them perform multiple functions at the same time.” Cornell contended that Hewlett-Packard used that process in a line of processors introduced in 1996 and promoted at the time as “the world’s fastest.”
Hewlett-Packard claimed that the patent did not cover a new invention - but the jury disagreed. HP has not yet said if they will appeal the decision. The patent, issued in 1989, has since expired.